How to Wake Up in the Morning

Rabbi Dovid Bendory, 20 Iyar 5766
Wall Street Shul

Birshut HaRav: I thought we would next learn together the
halachot pertaining to before we come to Shul. As Jews we have
halacha for everything, from the moment we wake up in them morning
until we go to sleep at night. The section of the Shulchan Aruch that
deals with our day to day activities opens the very first section with waking
up in the morning and explains how one should wakeup and immediately begin to
do mitzvot. The Mechaber begins: "One should be mighty like a
lion to arise in the morning in service of his creator such that he should
awaken the dawn." I'm being very literal in my translation. We will go step
by step through the halacha. The Mishna Berura comments on "to
serve his creator," "for man was created for the purpose of serving his
creator as we have a pasuk that says, 'Everything that is called in my
name and in my honor I have.' I'll start with the last part of the Mishna
Berura first and then we'll work our way back. If you had appointment
with the President, you would get up in the morning and prepare yourself.
Leaving politics aside, just out of respect for the office of the President
and out of respect for going to the place where you'll meet the President, you
would wake up in the morning and you would prepare yourself to go see the
President. You would wake up earlier than you need to in order to be sure
you're going to be there on time. You would wash yourself up so that you
would look nice. You would dress properly and you would be there early. You
would not only be on time, but you would be awake, you would be ready, you
would be eager to go to see the President.

The Mishna Berura takes analogy and says, "All the more so, there's no
comparison to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and a person's job, a person's role
in the world is to being HaKadosh Baruch Hu into this world to make
Hashem's presence manifest. The Rambon says that the greatest miracle of
creation is that Hashem was able to create a world in which he is so present
and yet design the world in such a way that man is able to see the world as if
Hashem isn't in it. It's one of the great paradoxes of creation. So our role
is to make Hashem's presence manifest in the world and one way that we do this
is by immediately waking up in the morning to fulfill that role, waking up
eager to greet the King. We should arise like a lion, fiercely arise from our
beds.

So what's this ferocity and ferociousness about? The Mishna Berura
explains a bit. Now it's a little bit harder for us to relate to this in our
air-conditioned and heated homes today, though nonetheless I think it does
still have relevance to us. Says the Mishna Berura, "in the winter
when you wake up the first thing that happens in the morning is that the
Yetzer Hara says, 'Don't get out of bed, it's nice and comfortable
here! It's nice and warm. What do you want to get out of bed for!? It's going
to be freezing! Why do you want to put your feet on the cold floor!? Stay
here. Stay in bed. Just another minute it's not gonna hurt you.'" Or in the
summer like the Mishna Berura, "the Yetzer Hara says, 'What are
you getting up so early for? You know, the sun rises so early in the summer
you have a long day ahead of you. Stay here rest another minute; you didn't
get enough sleep.'" So says the Mishna Berura, "You should jump up in
the morning, immediately begin like a lion, fight fiercely against your
Yetzer Hara. All your Yetzer Hara is trying to do is prevent you
from getting to Shul on time."

So jump up like a lion, arise in the morning, begin your day properly. If you
begin your day by defeating the Yetzer Hara first thing in the morning
with that very first thought, no doubt that will give you an additional push
to continue in your battle against your Yetzer Hara as the day
proceeds.

Rabbi Akiva Tatz tells a great way to win this battle with the Yetzer
Hara. When you wake up in the morning and your Yetzer Hara tells
you, "It's cold," don't argue with him. Don't argue with him; instead jump
out of bed, and after you've jumped out of bed then you argue with him. In
other words, after you get out of bed and you face the fact that it's cold,
then let him tell you it's cold and you should get back into bed and then you
can start the argument. But if you start arguing with him while you're still
lying in bed where it's nice and warm and comfortable you're finished. It's
all over.

At any rate, the first half of this subsection is that one should arise
fiercely like a lion in the morning in service of Hashem. The second half is
from the Yerushalmi where it says that you should should "awaken the
dawn." The Mishna Berura brings a secret mystical teaching that we
should connect day and night by way of Torah and tefilla, whether in
the morning or at night. That is, as the day transitions to night we should
forge that transition with Torah and tefilla; and similarly in the
morning as the night transitions to day or the night transitions to dawn we
should forge that connection with Torah and tefilla.

The Mishna Berura brings down in the name of the Shla"h that
immediately when you awaken in the morning and one do not intend to sleep
further, you should wash your hands. You should wash even while still lying
down, says the Shla"h, before even sitting up; and at any rate one
should be sure not to walk daled amos (approximately six feet) without
properly washing one's hands. One should be very careful in this matter says
the Shla"h. The Zohar explains the deep punishment one will receive
for violating this halacha. Why? Because when you wash negel
vasser, what you're doing is removing a spirit of contamination that has
come upon you from your sleep. This spirit of contamination has to do with
the fact that while you're sleeping there is some part of your neshamah
that leaves your body and goes up to Heavenand is protected by HaKadosh
Baruch Hu during the night. Because that part of your neshamah
leaves your body, there is some aspect of death that is associated with sleep,
and when your neshamah returns therefore you have this ruach
tuma upon you (a spirit of contamination). When you wash it off, you
remove it.

There are two ways to understand this daled amot. One way to is to
understand it as your domain. The other way to understand it is literally
four amot, about six feet. So there are some who are lenient and say
that since what this refers to is not to go out of your domain without
washing, and since your domain includes your home, there's no need to be
careful about not walking the literal six feet without washing. The Mishna
Berura says, that one should not rely on this unless it is urgently needed
to do so.

Finally, the Mishna Berura asks, "What if you get up and you don't have
the water? Should you withhold from fulfilling mitzvot because the
water isn't handy?" No; he says to wash your hands by any appropriate manner
and then go on to learn Torah or fulfill whatever mitzvot you got up to
do.